Alan Silitoe

Alan Silitoe died yesterday. The loneliness of the long distance runner is, in my opinion, one of the best short stories ever written. If you have never read it, go out and buy it today. He was one of our greatest writers and the Amis's and Rushdies, who today are lauded as literary giants will not be read in 100 years time. Silitoe will.

Christopher Brookmyre

FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS has finally got an entry in the 'London,' Press...The Observer has mentioned Anna's book as a regional bestseller, which is great news.....I was on BBC Radio Leeds yesterday reviewing the national news with Lisa Holdsworth who is a writer for TV.
We have just had a great review from Christopher Brookmyre for GABRIEL'S ANGEL 9780955336782 by Mark A Radcliffe. Holt Jackson's, one of the country's biggest Library Suppliers, is making GABRIEL'S ANGELS their Book Of The Month for July, which is fantastic news.

"You might think you'd rather die than go through group therapy, but what if death was no escape? Gabriel's Angel is the perfect antidote to the glib platitudes of emotional quick-fix culture: tender, astute and very funny." - Christopher Brookmyre

It's The London Bookfair this week, and our foreign rights team will be there to sell our titles. Fingers crossed that the Icelandic Cloud of Ash hasn't kept away the people with the chequebooks.

Moose on the airwaves

The Moose will be airing his views in BBC Radio Leeds this Friday at 10.40am. The subject is ghostwriting and celebrity authors....Should be fun. Random House last week wrote off £2Million, rumour has it that it was allied to the flop of The Peter Kay book, Saturday Night Peter. Tim Hely-Hutchinson, CEO of Hachettte, the largest publisher in the UK has said that non fiction celebrity titles will be cut by 25%....The Sleb gravy train is over....for now..until the next time.
It is The London Book fair next week and our foireign rights team will be selling the list, amongst them FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS. We've already sold the rights to a Russian Publisher and we have, apparently interest from another eight Europena publishers. Exciting times.
We've also had a fantastic review from Christopher Brookmyre, who read the Ms of GABRIEL'S ANGEL over his Easter holidays, and many thanks to him for his time and generosity. This is what he said.

" I thought it was seductively melancholy without being miserable, its philosophical conceit leavened with a delicately measured humour and its characters - both in this world and the next - as engagingly flawed as they were tenderly wrought. "

And then he gave us this top two line nugget.

" You might think you'd rather die than go through therapy, but what if death was no escape? Gabriel'sAngel is the perfect antidote to the glib platitudes of emotional quick-fix culture: tender, astute and very funny" Christopher Brookmyre.

I love that man.

Falling through clouds hits the Metropolis

The Moose has stormed through the ramparts, and is working its way to the heart of London....ish. We are finally getting a mention in this Sundays' Observer Newspaper. In their New Review section, they contact bookshops around the country to find out what the nation is reading. This morning they phoned The Bookcase in Hebden Bridge and asked Felicity what their bestselling book of the week was, and yes, it is a Bluemoose title, FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers. Great stories that are beautifully written do sell. I think people are sick and tired of reading books about writers writing about writing and how they overcome writer's block. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

Off to buy a giant Easter egg.

From Russia with love.

There has been a spate of emails and Press Releases relating to our deal with a Russian Publisher, most of them had a Bond or Beatles theme, yes , you guessed it, From Russia With Love, Back to the USSR and others. All good news of course.
We are now four months away from the launch of the next Bluemoose title, GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe. The jacket has been finalised, the Advanced Information sheet prepared and now its time to get out and sell what is a great story to the libraries and booksellers. It now has an official ISBN, so you can type it into your tinternet 9780955336782 and there it will be. A jacket image will be arriving within the next week or two, but I would prefer it f you bought it from a terrestrial bookseller or our own website. More money to publish more new books.
I am applying for the position of Professor of Happiness. Its a proper job and you don't have to tell any jokes. Smiles all round.

Moose and Bears

A Russian Publisher has bought the rights to FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers. they will publish within the next 18 months. This is great news for Anna and for Bluemoose. I hope this is the first of many foreign rights sales, but this puts Bluemoose on the international publishing map, and for Anna an opportunity to sell her great story to as many people as possible. As Buzz Lightyear said, 'To the world and beyond.'

To London and don't spare the Sherpas

Off to Londinium to see the Queen. Whoever is running the trains on the East Coast these days is having a laugh. It would be cheaper, though less fruitful in the afterlife, to hire a Nepalese Sherpa to carry me down to the Metropolis on a Palanquin. And I have to get up before the earliest bird even considers donning a napkin to breakfast on worms. That said, I will try and pop into some bookshops and see what they're pretending to read darn sarf. Toodlepip.

Books Etc

The new Books Etc website has been polished and tweaked and is now up and running. www.Booksetc.co.uk FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers is one of the promotional books of the month. We have just had the second improved image for GABRIEL'S ANGEL from our designers in Canada, the font needs adjusting and a few amendments here and there but it looks good, very good. I emailed Christopher Brookmyre a few weeks back to see if, in his busy schedule, he would read Mark's novel and hopefully give us a quote. Well, the good man that he is, despite being in the middle of writing his next novel, has said he will do that over the Easter break. I'm sure he'll like it as it's a fantastic story, beautifully written. Mark has such great insight into the minds of his characters, you feel as if you're part of the action. Brilliant. He could give a few Prize winning novelsists a run for their prose, in fact he'd beat them hands down. Off to sunny Manchester to see what the booksellers are up to. Then tomorrow its off to the metropolis to see what the linen suits are up to.

Great Stories

Apologies for being away over the past two weeks. I have been travelling the four corners of this green and pleasant land and although I know there is the technology to blog from wherever, I don't. I have to be in front of my PC at home. A luddite I know. The Moose goes from strength to strength. Since I last ranted, together with Anna Chilvers and Stephen Clayton we spoke at The Huddersfield Literature Festival, Sheffield Central Library, which was well attended and the audience threw some great questions at our authors. I also attended a prison to read from my book and answer questions, and it was very interesting if a little unnerving.
Our next publication GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark A Radcliffe will be out on July 24th 2010. The first draft has returned form the typesetters and looks like a proper book. We have received the jacket image from our designers in Canada, and it looks fantastic, very excited to have an image that really does grab the readers eye and reflect what the book is about. Thinking of a strapline for this book and have come up with, WHY HAS GOD REBRANDED SIN? Before you die you have to undergo psychotherapy just beneath heaven led by two angels. It is one of the funniest books I have written in ages. Made me laugh and cry in all the right places and Mark is such a gifted writer.
He teaches nursing at Brighton University and writes for The Nursing Times.

In the bookselling world it was great to read that Foyles are selling books at full price, haven't rid the shopfloor of knowledgeable booksellers and have increased their stock range and guess what? This has increased sales substantially . Rocket science I know. The chair of The Orange Prize had a dig at publishers about what they seem to be presenting to the reader. Books that start bleakley and then get progressively darker. She wanted 'stories.' Well, get yourself a Bluemoose Book. Stories that engage and inspire the reader.

Homecoming

Anna Chilvers gave a reading last night at Hebden Bridge library. It is always daunting to read in your home town, you never know whether the assembled throng are there to applaud or assault. It was the former and they asked some great questions. I ranted on a bit about the high street bookshop monopoly and how the 'Lit Eds' from the broadsheets never seem to want to review new writers from independent publishers. To the internet and beyond.
Anna will be reading at Sheffield central library on Wednesday evening at 6pm, at The Huddersfield Literature Festival with Stephen Clayton on Thrusday at 4pm, they are the warm up act for Alexie Sayle, but I think it's a printing error and should be the other way round. We are now proofing GABRIEL'S ANGEL by Mark Radcliffe and it gladdens the heart to realise you're publishing a really great story. It is making me laugh out loud, always a good sign and for all the right reasons.